Latest news with #MissouriHouse
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Missouri House bill ignites debate on reducing limitations
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri House bill aimed at reducing the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is concerning for the partners at the Right Side Law Firm. 'You find individuals who have been hurt really, really bad,' said Tracey Chappell Vick, one of their managing partners. 'And so their treatment will go beyond the two-year statute of limitations that's being currently proposed.' Liberty 9-year-old battling cancer competes for national title The bill would decrease the statute of limitations from five years to two years. The bill's supporters say that it would 'help businesses thrive, reduce legal uncertainties and streamline litigation.' Chappell Vick says that she fears it will cause a backlog in our court system. 'When we are filing lawsuits within a two-year time period, I feel like we are starting to clog up the court systems,' she said. 'And that's something that we desperately do not want to do. We have enough cases in the court system, especially here in Jackson County.' House Bill 68 was introduced in the 2025 Missouri legislative session. It passed the House but never got a vote in the Senate. It's unclear if the bill will be reintroduced in the 2026 legislative session that starts on January 7. Melinda Marshall, another managing partner at Right Side, says that she has a preference after working in both Kansas and Missouri. 'We cannot help our clients in Kansas the way we can help them in Missouri,' she said. 'A lot of it has to do with the fact that they have such a short time frame in order to allow us to bring a lawsuit.' Both lawyers say that a two-year statute of limitations causes them to file suit without the evidence they'll need in their cases. Metro school districts react to new Missouri cell phone policy 'So even though you're in court quicker, you may be there two or three years longer than you should be because you're just not ready,' Marshall said. 'This bill is not giving plaintiffs' attorneys the opportunity to really flesh out what this case needs and how to really bring this case to a close,' Chappell Vick said. 'Sometimes, more often than not, it's forcing us to file a lawsuit. That's not what we want to do. And I believe that that is exactly what this bill is forcing us to do.' 25 other states have their statute of limitations set at two years. Chappell Vick says that other states should be following Missouri's lead, not the other way around. 'I believe that the way that it currently sits, we can give our clients the opportunity to finish up their treatment. We can then negotiate with the insurance companies if we need to. And if the negotiation doesn't go anywhere, our clients are fully treated and if they then need to file a lawsuit, they can then do so.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
From St. Joe to the Capitol: Skylar Smith sets sights on Missouri House District 10 seat
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — With Rep. Bill Falkner set to term out in 2026, St. Joseph native and current law student Skylar Smith has announced his candidacy for Missouri House District 10. A Republican, Smith is running on a platform focused on public safety, education reform, youth programs, and small business support. Smith is completing his final year at the University of Missouri School of Law and has worked in legal and economic policy roles with the St. Louis County Counselor's Office, the City of Columbia, and the Missouri Senate Majority Caucus. He believes this experience, along with his blue-collar background and deep ties to St. Joseph, uniquely qualify him to serve. Vote Smith for 10th because that means St Joe comes first," he said. He is calling for community-based approaches to crime prevention, increased investment in youth recreation, expanded school choice, and tort reform to protect small businesses. He also emphasizes his support for pro-life policies and Second Amendment rights. "There's a lot of people in my family and throughout the community that have lost a lot of trust in local and in state government," Smith said, "I'm hoping to help restore that through measures of transparency and just better overall common sense spending and deregulation. Limited government is generally speaking the best form of government. A graduate of Central High School and Missouri Western, Smith has been active in community service, volunteering at food banks and mentoring youth. He says his top priority is making sure St. Joseph gets its fair share of state resources. The Missouri Primary Election will be held August 4th, 2026, with the General Election on November 3rd, 2026. For more information on Smith's campaign, visit his official website here. Smith says he's excited to see everyone August 16th for a celebration and fundraising event at The Metropolitan before they close their doors this September.
The Hill
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Missouri repeals voter-approved paid sick leave law
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) signed a measure Thursday that repeals the state's guaranteed paid sick leave law, less than a year after nearly 58 percent of voters approved it. In a news release, the governor's office described the voter-initiated paid sick leave law as 'onerous' and harmful to small businesses because it dictates 'when and how paid leave must be provided' and requires 'burdensome record keeping and compliance obligations.' 'Today, we are protecting the people who make Missouri work — families, job creators, and small business owners — by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach, and eliminating costly mandates,' Kehoe said in a statement. Kehoe was elected governor last fall, receiving nearly the same number of votes (about 1.7 million) as those in favor of the paid sick leave measure on the same ballot. The legislation Kehoe signed this week also ends automatic Consumer Price Index adjustments to the state's $15-an-hour minimum wage, another component of the ballot initiative voters overwhelmingly approved in November. 'The governor's action today demonstrates the absolute disdain Republicans have for working Missourians,' Missouri House Democratic Leader Ashley Aune said in a news release. 'But in stripping workers of their legal right to earned sick leave, the governor and his allies have probably guaranteed this issue will be back on the ballot next year as a constitutional amendment that will place worker protections beyond their reach.' Voters approved the ballot initiative known as Proposition A as a new state statute, which has a lower signature threshold for ballot submission and approval but can be repealed by state lawmakers, rather than as a constitutional amendment, which can only be reversed through another statewide vote. Missouri's GOP-controlled legislature approved the repeal of the components of Prop A during its session earlier this year, voting 133-17 in the House and 22-11 in the Senate. The paid sick leave law, which went into effect May 1, allows employees to earn an hour of time off for every 30 hours worked. The new law Kehoe signed doesn't provide for workers to keep time that they accrued during the nearly four months that it will have been effect when it ends next month. An independent poll of Missouri voters in April found 75 percent opposed efforts to repeal the measure, but pro-business groups lobbied heavily for its repeal, describing it as burdensome for employers. 'Business owners were clear: Proposition A's paid leave and minimum wage policies were a job killer,' Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) President and CEO Kara Corches said in a statement. 'Missouri employers value their employees and recognize the importance of offering competitive wages and benefits, but one-size-fits-all mandates threaten growth.' Missouri Jobs with Justice, a worker advocacy group that advocated for the paid sick leave law, had urged Kehoe to veto the legislation to repeal it. 'Missouri workers and their families do not deserve to see their newly earned paid sick leave stripped away,' the group wrote in a letter to Kehoe last month. 'So many workers are for the first time experiencing the relief of paid sick leave.' 'If Proposition A is repealed, workers will again face increased economic insecurity when balancing being sick with maintaining their job,' it added.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Missouri lawmakers push state colleges to create 60-credit-hour transferable degree programs
State Rep. Cameron Parker, a Republican from Campbell, presents a bill in the Missouri House in February (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications). Missouri students majoring in business, biology, elementary education, psychology and nursing may soon be able to transfer more college credits between the state's public universities. State lawmakers negotiated a plan to make 60-credit-hour blocks in five degree programs universally transferable among public universities and community colleges in Missouri as part of a bill awaiting the governor's signature or veto. The change is set to kick in by the 2028-29 school year. The legislation's original sponsor, Republican state Rep. Cameron Parker of Campbell, has advocated for the bill for two years in hopes it can reduce the number of classes transfer students have to repeat. 'If you go to a community college in southeast Missouri and you transfer to a four year school in northwest Missouri, we want it to be a seamless transition across the state,' she told The Independent. 'So if you go to any community college, you will know what any of the four-year schools are going to take.' Parker chose the five degree programs in the bill because they were the most popular for community-college students. She sees the potential for colleges to extend similar agreements to other fields but understands the process is 'daunting' for universities. Four-year institutions have been the only pushback on the legislation — which garnered near unanimous approval from the Missouri House. Paul Wagner, executive director of the Council on Public Higher Education, told a House committee in February that he wished the bill would allow for colleges to keep existing agreements for the five degrees intact. Wagner's group represents Missouri's public universities outside of the University of Missouri system. 'We still have some concerns that it is going to be throwing out the good in hopes that whatever the new thing is might be better,' Wagner told The Independent in an interview Wednesday. But Brian Millner, president of the Missouri Community College Association, said in the House hearing that the current system is not working for students. 'Our transfer and articulation system is built on a house of cards of literally thousands of articulation agreements between a community college and a university for a particular program replicated over and over and over again,' he said. 'We can do better for our students.' Navigating these articulation agreements can be challenging, Millner said, and it increasingly hurts students who do not have a clear idea of which four-year college they will transfer to. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The issue expands beyond students and impacts Missouri taxpayers, Parker said, since many Missouri students use the state-funded A+ Scholarship Program to pay for community college. The A+ program pays for students to take 12 to 18 credit hours at a community college each semester for up to two years. 'If kids are taking 60 hours and then they're transferring only 42, it is not fair to the kids. It is not fair to their parents, and it is not fair to the taxpayers paying for the A+ Program,' Parker said. Since the 2018-19 school year, Missouri public universities have collaborated on a 42-credit-hour block of general education requirements, dubbed the CORE 42, thanks to a law passed by the General Assembly. There were 'fits' at the beginning of the program, Wagner said, but 'implementation has worked really well.' Parker's legislation would expand the existing program, adding 18 more universally transferable credit hours for the five degree programs. Mirroring the implementation CORE 42, a coordinating board of stakeholders will oversee the course-equivalency block. As part of negotiations with universities, Parker edited the legislation to call for an equal number of representatives from community colleges and four-year institutions on the board. Her original bill called for one member per school. The change, she said, helped tamp down some concerns and advance the bill this year. 'When everybody started coming to the table and sitting down and making these big fixes that helped everybody across the board, then I became pretty hopeful (that the bill would pass),' she said. Gov. Mike Kehoe has until July 15 to sign or veto bills passed this year.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kratom helps fight pain, but can be dangerous. Missouri needs to regulate it
Missouri lawmakers chose not to restrict access to kratom and its derivative, 7-hydroxymitragynine or 7-OH, during this year's legislative session. That was the right call. But the current legal vacuum leaves consumers unprotected and responsible businesses without clear standards. As legislators begin shaping the 2026 agenda, the next step is clear: Adopt science-based regulation that protects public health and supports recovery. Kratom is a plant native to Southeast Asia that has been used for centuries to relieve pain and support recovery from substance use. Today in Missouri, it is sold in the form of capsules, powders and teas in wellness shops and smoke stores. Some people use it like coffee to improve focus or energy. Others, especially those managing chronic pain or recovering from opioid addiction, rely on it for more important reasons. Its naturally occurring compound 7-OH can be isolated and refined from the kratom plant, and it shows particular promise as a harm reduction tool. One of those people is one 76-year-old Marine veteran from Kansas City I know who served in Vietnam. He lives with chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and long-term complications from cancer treatment. After struggling with conventional medications, he found relief through 7-OH. This vet's story reflects what we hear from customers every day. I run a business that serves people across Missouri, from cities to rural communities. Many are veterans, chronic pain patients or people in recovery. Some rely on kratom products daily to stabilize their health and avoid more dangerous substances. That is why we have adopted strict quality standards, including third-party testing for potency and purity, transparent labeling and ID checks to prevent sales to anyone under 21. But not every seller follows these practices. And without statewide regulation, nothing requires them to. Right now, kratom and 7-OH are legal to sell to anyone, anywhere in the state, with no consistent protections in place. This creates an environment where bad actors can mislabel products and ignore safety standards, putting vulnerable people at risk. In past years, some lawmakers have proposed bans as a solution. But we have seen what happens when gaps in oversight lead to blanket prohibition instead of thoughtful reform. The war on drugs criminalized demand without offering safer, regulated alternatives. That pushed people into underground markets and compounded the harm. We can take a better approach right here in Missouri. This year, lawmakers came close. The Missouri House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan kratom consumer protection bill. It would have barred sales to minors, banned adulterated products and established clear rules for labeling and safety. But the Senate failed to act before the session ended, leaving Missourians without these basic protections. When lawmakers return next year, they should make kratom and 7-OH regulation a priority. Done right, it would preserve access for adults, ensure consistency across the market and crack down on reckless sellers. It would also level the playing field for responsible businesses that are already meeting high standards. Lawmakers now have the chance to lead with both compassion and common sense. We do not need another moral panic. We need clear, enforceable rules that protect consumers and support recovery. Next year, must be the year we get this right. Vince Sanders is the founder and president of CBD American Shaman, one of the largest CBD retail chains in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, the company has grown to encompass more than 360 franchise locations across the country.
